Waiting like a madman
by imPERFECTology
Summary: His face changed imperceptibly then, but she was so used to reading him that she noticed. He was bit tired tonight, she thought. The slope of his shoulders, the waning strength of his imperviousness… "I haven't left her alone. I've been here, waiting like a madman. Like a fool," he said. AU oneshot based on Love in Tokyo and anime.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (except in my dreams). Please don't sue.**

This one shot is mainly based on the live-action drama **Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo** and the **anime**. Basically Naoki and Kotoko (in my mind at least) look and act like the characters in the live-action, but you'll notice Chris (from the anime) is an important secondary character.

It's also an **AU**; the premise is Kotoko and Naoki either started a relationship/were about to start one, but something occurred that caused them to break up. A lot of this is up to your imagination. Basically I just wanted to write a repentant Naoki, a scenario where Naoki was the one chasing after Kotoko. The biggest problem was framing it in a way that would allow Naoki to stay in character.

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><p><strong>Waiting like a madman<strong>

Kotoko was humming softly to herself. She carefully placed the lacquered glassware one on top of the other, mindful to be as quiet as possible. The restaurant was full tonight, and tumbles of conversation swirled around her little song. Some people were happy. The necks of their glasses, brimming with sake, clinked merrily as they cheered raucously.

Then something caught her eye. She noticed a young woman picking at a bowl of greens, while the man seated opposite her tap-tapped busily on his phone. "Excuse me," he said, rising smoothly. "There's something that requires my attention."

Where was the towel? Ah, there it was. Kotoko picked it up and rubbed diligently on the surface of the table. She watched as the young woman's chopsticks faltered, then rested gently on her plate. Her hands fell to her lap, and clenched.

Kotoko finished wiping her table and carried the glassware back into the kitchens. She picked up her teapot and walked through the curtains, back out into the hustle and bustle.

"Sorry for the wait!" she heard Chris say to Table 3, her hands laden with food. Kin-chan must be really busy back in the kitchen, Kotoko thought to herself.

The man wasn't back yet. She could see him outside, leaning against a lamp post. The yellow glow cast a faint haze around his angular features. The phone was held against his ear, and from the cold mist evaporating into the night it looked like he was talking to someone.

"Would you like more tea?" Kotoko asked kindly. The young woman looked up, her eyes slightly rimmed with red. She sniffled.

Kotoko glanced down at the young woman's cup. The tea had barely been touched.

"Drink. Nothing calms the soul like a good brew of tea," Kotoko said with a smile. She filled an empty cup with steaming hot tea and placed it in front of the young woman, before picking up the cold tea and carrying it back to the kitchen.

"Kotoko-chan!" It was Kinnosuke, sweat dripping from his forehead, the white cuffs of his shirt rolled up.

"It's a good night for the restaurant, Kin-chan," Kotoko said. She dumped the tea down the drain and set the empty cup with the rest of the dirty plates.

"It's a good night every night with me and my knife," Kinnosuke said. He beamed proudly, then concentrated on plating the dish in front of him.

Kotoko walked over. "Mmm, that smells wonderful!"

Chris burst through the curtains. "Ko-to-ko! It's crazy outside, come and help!"

Kotoko laughed. "I'm coming! Tonight your section seems to be a lot rowdier than mine."

Chris wrinkled her nose, but didn't say anything. Since Chris was training to be the mistress of the restaurant, Kotoko's father had assigned the small rooms as well as the large group tables to her. Chris also had more pressure to strike up a good rapport with guests.

"Kotoko-chan! Before you leave take these with you." Kinnosuke gestured at two complete plates on the counter.

"Alright, I'm off!" Kotoko carefully balanced the plates in her hands and ducked through the curtains. She made her way to the table in the far corner, smiling at regulars and keeping an eye on her guests.

The man was back. The young woman was picking at her greens again, the tea beside her gently emitting steam.

"Sorry for the wait! I have your order for tonight." Kotoko placed the plates gently on the table.

The man looked up from his phone. His eyes were a hard brown colour, but they softened slightly. Was it the light? Kotoko looked away quickly, and focused on the man's companion. The young woman smiled tiredly at Kotoko. "Thank you," she said.

"You're very welcome. I hope you enjoy! And remember, drink your tea," Kotoko said. She winked at the young woman, smiled, and then flitted off. There were always more guests with more requests, and she allowed herself to be consumed with the restless spirit of the night.

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><p>"Thank you for your hard work!" Chris said as she walked by. She had changed out of her kimono and was wearing a pretty blue skirt that matched her eyes. Kin-chan was a lucky man, Kotoko noted.<p>

"You look very pretty tonight, Chris. Is Kin-chan taking you out on a date?" Kotoko asked.

Chris blushed. "Yes, but he's not done in the kitchen yet…"

"I'll go check," Kotoko said gently. She walked through the curtains and found Kinnosuke nervously pacing.

"Kotoko-chan!" he said in surprise.

"Kin-chan, you're making Chris wait," Kotoko said with a frown.

"Aaah, Kotoko-chan, I don't know what to do!" Kinnosuke said. He was babbling and still pacing around nervously, but Kotoko noticed that his hand was stuck in his pants pocket.

"Kin-chan, what's that you've got there?" she asked, pointing.

Kinnosuke froze.

"I…" he said.

"Is that for Chris?" Kotoko asked shrewdly.

"I…" he said, eyes wide. Kotoko looked at him, then smiled.

"Good luck, Kin-chan. Be good to Chris, alright? She deserves to be loved, and so do you," she said. "Go. I'll clean up the kitchen tonight."

"But I…"

"Just go!" Kotoko said, giggling. She pushed Kinnosuke out the curtains, and heard Chris scolding him about being late.

"Those two…" she said softly, smiling. She hummed a little song and picked up a nearby cloth. But before she did that, she reached for the coffee pot and poured herself a healthy amount.

Kotoko looked down into her cup of coffee, and saw her reflection staring back at her from out of the black liquid.

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><p>She locked the door of the shop. It was past midnight already, so her phone was in her hand. Although <em>Aihara<em> was located in a nice part of town, there was always a chance that unsavoury characters lurked nearby, especially in a city like Tokyo.

"Kotoko."

She jumped. Then she froze, the keys dangling from her tense fingers.

"You caught me," she said, the words whooshing out. She turned around, and looked at the man leaning against the lamp post.

He hadn't changed one bit. Those same eyes, which peered at her with a stony intensity. That same nose, which had been pointed down towards her since the first time they crossed paths. And his lips, red and unmoving.

"Have I?" he asked. His expression never changed. It was the same forbidding face that scolded her harshly, that teased her merciless. The same face that had softened, had smiled, had even laughed, and then had closed itself off to the world.

But never to me, Kotoko though. His face. It would never be closed to me.

Her hand moved of its own accord, and her heart was badump-ing like crazy. She forced it back to her side.

"You promised me one chance. To show you that I've changed," he said.

"You haven't," she said, breathless. "She was very pretty, and you left her all alone. That wasn't very kind."

"So the tea _was_ you," he said.

"That phone is still glued to your hand," she said.

His face changed imperceptibly then, but she was so used to reading him that she noticed. He was bit tired tonight, she thought. The slope of his shoulders, the waning strength of his imperviousness…

"I haven't left her alone. I've been here, waiting like a madman. Like a fool," he said. They both knew he wasn't talking about his dinner companion.

"I've been here every night. And I'm running out of people to eat dinner with. So for the sake of my employees, who are all terrified they'll be called on to eat with the boss tomorrow, say you'll take their place. Be my dinner companion, and I'll never have to find another one again."

"They might be terrified of you, but I'm sure there are plenty who would love to eat with their handsome boss," she said lightly. The sky held no stars tonight. The light pollution in Tokyo was quite something.

"I think the restaurant will be closed tomorrow," Kotoko said, turning back to him. He looked down from the sky as well, and his eyebrow raised ever-so-slightly. She thought of Kin-chan, and Chris, and how happy Chris would be tonight.

But tonight, she won't be lonely with only a cup of coffee and memories to keep her company. Tonight, she won't be thinking about how lucky everyone else was. She won't be thinking about how she, too, had once thought herself the luckiest girl in the world.

Hesitantly, tentatively, Kotoko reached out a hand. There was a pause, and then he grasped her hand firmly in his.

"Kotoko," he said. There was a lilt of hope in his voice, like a single gentle ray of sunlight infusing the gloom with a soft radiance. He pulled, and she followed until she found herself back in his arms.

She reached up on her tip toes, her hands balancing on his shoulders. Her lips brushed his once, twice, and then stayed there. After a long moment, she finally drew back with a satisfied smile.

"Serves you right," she said.

And he laughed.

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><p>I wrote that in half an hour as an outpouring of emotion, mainly frustration at how slowly season 2 is airing. Let me know what you think of my writing exercise!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

Thanks to you if you read the first part and reviewed, because you're awesome and you made my day! I decided to continue this one-shot just a bit further, with more fluff than anything else. It's already pre-written, so I'll be posting this second part today, and the third and fourth sometime later.

**Please read and review!**

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><p>Every morning, Kinnosuke arrived at exactly nine in the morning to prepare for the day.<p>

"Always be prepared!" Aihara had once said to him. And Kinnosuke had taken those words, folded them close to his heart, and followed them like a law. His kitchens were always spotlessly clean. His knives were always in the correct order. His refrigerators were always stocked with the freshest ingredients, locally sourced from farms surrounding Tokyo.

So it was no different on this day, of all days. He got up, made a quick breakfast of a convenience store bento (his considerable culinary talents not fully functioning early in the morning), and hopped on to the 8:30 bus. He would wind his way slowly through the early morning traffic rush until finally, the bus chugged up to his stop and he hopped off a block away from _Aihara_.

_Aihara_ was his pride and joy. It was an emblem of everything he had ever thought he needed, and it had instead given him what he truly required.

There weren't many people dawdling about outside of _Aihara_. Most everyone was rushing through the streets at the normal Tokyo pace, which meant a single minded surging forward that stopped for nothing and no one. The hustle and bustle merely slipped around Kinnosuke, who was whistling a tune as he fished out his keys and slipped in through the glass doors.

He surveyed the empty restaurant in front him. He knew every table intimately, could draw a blueprint of the place in his sleep. Carefully making sure that all was in its proper place, he reminded himself to commend Kotoko-chan on a job well done.

Then, like every morning, he made a beeline for the curtains that separated the dining floor from his domain, the kitchens.

Except this morning was slightly different.

Unlike yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that, Kinnosuke was not the only person in the restaurant. Instead, there was the merry clanging of pots and pans in his most sacred space.

Kinnosuke burst through the curtains in a flurry of fear and anger, before his eyes took note of the peculiar scene in front of him, freezing him in his place.

"Oh! Good morning, Kin-chan!" Kotoko said merrily. "I'm sorry, I'm probably disturbing you, but I thought I would borrow… oops!"

Kinnosuke winced as he spotted a pot (a 100, 000 yen pot he managed to snag on sale last Christmas) bubbling over what used to be his spotless stove top.

"Kotoko-chan," he said weakly. "Good morning."

It wasn't until much later that Kinnosuke realized what had possessed Kotoko to barge into his sacred domain and ruin his carefully ordered kitchen.

After rescuing his pot, and wincing at the mess he found inside his pot, Kinnosuke had rounded on Kotoko like a parent would an unruly child.

"Kotoko-chan! What did you think you were doing?"

Kotoko laughed nervously. "…cooking?" she offered.

"NO! No, this is not cooking. Kotoko-chan, this is called poisoning someone," Kinnosuke declared.

"Kin-chan! Surely I wasn't that bad!" At Kinnosuke's grimace, Kotoko relented. "Well, fine, maybe I'm not gifted in the kitchen like you are, but I manage to scrap together three meals a day without your help."

"If you call convenience store bentos 'scrapping together a meal'," Kin-chan sneered.

"I have it in on good authority that _you_, Oh Almight Chef, eat convenience store bentos as well!" Kotoko-chan said triumphantly. "And there's nothing wrong with them. I'm sure at least half of Tokyo's population survives on them too."

"The point is," Kinnosuke stressed, "This isn't cooking. This is… this is destruction, not creation. And you still haven't told me what you're doing in my kitchen at nine in the morning!"

At this, Kotoko turned a bit pale. She ignored Kinnosuke and returned back to her cutting board, which was strewn with roughly hewn carrots.

"Kotoko-chan."

Kotoko lifted a cutting knife and brought it down upon a carrot with a loud thump.

"Kotoko-chan, you can't ignore me for forever."

Kotoko stared at the carrot, puzzled. Why was it that _he_ could cut his carrots into perfectly proportioned slices, and she lacked the motor skills to do the same? It wasn't fair! She had always envied him of his seeming talent to excel at everything he set his mind to. She smiled. Apparently, this talent also extended to making her fall in love with him again.

Not that she ever fell out of love in the first place, but he didn't need to know that.

Humming a cheery tune, Kotoko determinedly raised the knife again and was about to bring it down on the carrot when a rough hand caught her elbow.

"Stop! Please, stop! My poor knife can't take any more careless wielding!" Kinnosuke quickly snatched his knife out of her hands, inspected the damage on the blade, and gave a sigh of relief.

"Kin-no-su-ke!" Kotoko said, tapping her foot.

"Until you tell me why you suddenly decided to invade–", at her glare, Kinnosuke quickly reworded it, "-bless my kitchen with your presence, I won't return it to you."

"Fine," Kotoko said moodily. She sighed. "How about this? If you help me make an o-bento, I will tell you why I'm here. Deal?"

Kinnosuke eyed her hand reluctantly. "Deal," he agreed, shaking on it.

"Good. Now, knife," Kotoko said, hand held palm up.

Once the knife was back in her grasp, Kotoko whirled around and eyed the carrots.

Kinnosuke groaned.

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><p>It was hard to get Kinnosuke into character this time! Hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think.<p> 


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